Once upon a time in
Once upon a time Ah-yo-keh, a little Cherokee Indian girl lay beside a running stream, trailing her small hand in the cool clear water. She was troubled by what she had overheard Pawlee, the corn woman say to her mother this morning. “I warn you because I am your friend. Our people fear that your husband is making magic against the tribe. They think he talks with evil powers for he makes strange sounds and puts marks on birch bark.”
Ah-yo-keh thought about what she had heard and was troubled. She could not believe that he father dealt in magic; for she knew him to be kind and good. How could tribe-members think that about him? She tip-toed to the place where her father was working and hid in the bushes, observing. He was acting peculiar; could the tribe be right? Fear touched her heart.
Sequoyah sat on a log near their cabin, his head thrown back and his eyes closed. He was making queer sounds. Now and then he would take a piece of birch bark and make a mark on it.
Ah-yo-keh stepped out from the shrubbery and with a hesitant voice, asked, “Father, what are you doing?”
Sequoyah put aside the bark and lit his pipe and patted the log beside him. Little Ah-yo-keh climbed up beside him. “This is a rather long story, so listen carefully,” he said.
“When I was a young brave, I saw a white man looking at paper on which were many black marks. He told me that these marks made a message on the paper. I thought how wonderful and useful that the white man can send messages to people who are miles away. And I’m thinking how wonderful it would be if the Cherokees could do the same thing! Perhaps the strength and wisdom of the white man is because they have written down the wisdom of each generation and later generations can learn that wisdom and more!”
Ah-yo-keh nodded and listened to her father as he continued. “I’m trying to find a way to write our Cherokee language. The white man’s marks will not do for Cherokee words for there are sounds in our words that cannot be made with the white man’s marks. I’ve been trying to find a mark for each of our sounds, to make a Cherokee alphabet. I sit here thinking of all the sounds in Cherokee talk. When I think of a sound, I make a mark for it. I have it almost completed. Soon we will have our own alphabet. Then we will be able to read and write to each other.”
“But why do people think you are making bad magic against the tribe?”
“When I finish my work and can make others understand, they will thank me,” said her father. “Then let me help you,” said the child. She gathered bark and helped her father make the marks. Sequoyah’s face brightened, “What a wonderful idea! I will teach you to read and write and the chiefs will know there is no evil in our project.” Sequoyah and his daughter spent many long hours together making the marks and the sounds of the Cherokee language.
Word came that the tribe chiefs were angry and feared Sequoyah was making magic to bring injury to the Cherokee nation. The chiefs came to Sequoyah’s cabin to hold an investigation.
Ah-yo-keh brought pieces of birch bark to her father. The chiefs examined them and said, “If there is good in this bark, show us that good.”
Sequoyah said, “I will show you and my young daughter will help me. I will write her a message and she will read it to you.”
“We shall send the child away and you will give me a message. I will write your message down on this birch bark. After that, take the bark to the child. She will read from it what your words have been.” When the chiefs took her the piece of bark on which were some familiar marks, the little girl with trembling hands took the bark and with a clear and steady voice, she read the words exactly as the chiefs had spoken them to her father.
The chiefs were amazed. Could this be true? Was it some kind of trick? Perhaps she had overheard what was said. They doubted what they had witnessed!
“No,” said Sequoyah, “my daughter read it from the bark. But come, let us far into the forest, away from the cabin and send another message to my daughter.”
Deep in the woods, they gave him another message which he marked onto the bark and gave to his daughter to read. Again, she recited the exact words that had been spoken in secret from the marks on the bark.
The chiefs huddled together and made their decisions and remarks….and finally the oldest chief spoke. “This thing you and your daughter have done is amazing. Can you teach it to others?”
Sequoyah nodded, “Of course, if a child can learn it, surely our young men will not find it difficult.”
In just a few months, thousands of Cherokees learned to read and write. Sequoyah was honored by his tribe. “Ability to write down a sound is a gift of the Great Spirit,” he said, “and the only reward I want is the privilege of teaching others.”
For the rest of his life he traveled throughout Cherokee settlements, teaching those who would learn. Sequoyah is remembered not only by the Cherokee but by all scholars, for he is the only man in the world who is known for making an alphabet by himself. A statue of this remarkable teacher stands in the Capitol at
This is a true story gleaned from textbook, “Call of the Southwest,” written by J.A.Rickard & Clyde Inez Martin.
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